Connolly, Carol

Carol Connolly (née McLellan), a lifelong resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, was born in 1934. Connolly's first career was raising seven children born to her and husband John S. Connolly. Although active as a volunteer in many organizations during her twenty-one years of marriage, it was after divorcing in 1979 that Connolly's public life took on a higher profile. Throughout the years since then, Connolly has been variously known as a political candidate, activist, journalist, poet, and playwright.

An active DFL member, Connolly first became politically involved through the peace movement of the 1960s and the various campaign activities of her husband, who later became a Ramsey County District Court judge. In 1968 she volunteered for the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign and they became close friends. While a 1980 bid for a seat on the St. Paul City Council was unsuccessful, Connolly remained politically involved over the years through fund raising for the campaigns for many other, mainly female, candidates.

Women's rights emerged as the focus of her civic and political activities, which included serving as co-chair of the Minnesota Women's Political Caucus and coordinating the Wonder Woman Foundation, a New York City-based organization which recognized and rewarded women over forty for heroic accomplishments, as well as work with numerous other feminist and women-centered organizations in the Twin Cities area. In 1977 Connolly was appointed to the St. Paul Human Rights Commission, where she served for nine years, five of them as chair. As the first woman ever appointed to the commission, she worked to bring women's causes to the forefront. Motivated by a desire to make sure that women would have a presence in the new industry, Connolly sought and received an appointment from the governor to the Minnesota Racing Commission when it was formed in 1983 and served as chair of the commission's affirmative action committee.

In addition to her civic and political activities, Connolly gained attention and acclaim for her literary accomplishments. She began writing poetry in 1976 by accident, when the fiction class she wanted to take was full. She signed up for a poetry class instead and published her first collection, Payments Due, in 1985. The poems were later adapted for a stage performance that played successfully to audiences in the Twin Cities and Los Angeles. In 1989 and 1991 she appeared as a stand-up comic in the Dudley Riggs Experimental Theatre Company (Minneapolis, Minn.) production entitled, What's So Funny About Being Female? From 1988 to 1991 she wrote a gossip column called "Connections" for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch newspaper. She also wrote for Mpls.-St. Paul, the Star Tribune, Minnesota Journal, and Ladies Home Journal . Connolly was also a political and gossip commentator for Barbara Carlson's radio show on AM 1500 KSTP. In 2006 Connolly was appointed the first poet laureate of St. Paul, Minnesota by Mayor Chris Coleman.

From the guide to the Carol Connolly and family papers., 1927-2010., (Minnesota Historical Society)